The Empty Exhibition

Australia’s cult art magazine announces The Empty Exhibition, a group show to celebrate the launch of the 20th Issue of Empty magazine.

Started in 2004, Empty magazine quickly became one of Australia’s most popular art and design publications. Current Empty editor, and publisher, Andrew Johnstone created the magazine after many years of frustration at the lack of interesting art and design magazines being published in Australia… “I was just sick of magazines that called themselves ‘art’ or ‘design’ mags and yet only had a handful of pages that had art on them. Just full of ads and boring articles. Mindless analysis of ‘design issues’, and product reviews to keep their advertisers happy, that sort of thing. They were, and some still are, catalogues, not magazines” Rather than just continuing to complain, Johnstone started Empty and has spent the last twenty issues working to create a magazine unique for its content and lack of advertising. With the release of it’s upcoming 20th Issue, the Empty crew decided they’d like to organise a group exhibition, a perfect way to showcase some of the talented artists that have been shown in Empty.

This, says Johnstone, was not as easy as it sounds… “We’ve had hundreds of artists in the magazine over the years so trying to pick who to ask to exhibit was not only very exciting, but also quite frustrating as we knew that we had limited space and so could not ask too many” The artists selected reflect the diversity of styles that are published in the magazine. From photo realistic paintings, to surrealism, street art and documentary photography, The Empty Exhibition will showcase a broad range of works from Erik Sandberg, Meggs, Nic Plowman, Beastman, Aaron Nagel, Andrew Quilty, Karim Hamid, Tamara Dean, Christian Rex Van Minnen and David Kassan.

The Empty Exhibition kicks off on 14 April at aMBUSH Gallery and then moves north to open at the National Grid Gallery on 29 April. Two exciting openings at galleries well known for their support of young and talented artists and collectives.